Saturday, April 14, 2012

I've been trying for some time now to buy an electric car. I've been unable to do so, for comical reasons that I will recount in later blog entries. I figured that first, though, I would explain my reasoning for wanting one.

It begins with my strong belief that we're going to run out of oil. That resource simply won't be here indefinitely.

Add in a dash of wanting independence from foreign oil sooner than later. Maybe if we weren't so dependent on certain countries, we wouldn't feel such a desperate urge to mess with them.

Then, stir with my conviction that mass transit simply will not work in time for America. We are too spread out. We are a car culture. Our population, though admittedly increasingly urban, is still also heavily suburban and rural.

The answer is clearly to move to electric cars.

Yes, I know this means we need more power, but we're going to need that anyway as we grow and as power-consuming devices increase in number and in their need for power.

Support for electric cars is in its infancy, and the cars are still more expensive than low-end gas-powered vehicles, but I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is and be an early adopter.

If only I could.

In later entries, I'll recount my amazing encounters with Tesla Motors and with Nissan. Suffice to say for now that I have never in my life worked so hard to try to give companies my money--and failed.